Brave Eileidh fights cancer with a smile

BRAVE Eileidh Paterson is fighting one of the most aggressive childhood cancers which exists – but the two-year-old has never stopped smiling.

LITTLE WARRIOR: Eileidh is fighting one of the most aggressive childhood cancers

Eileidh, who lives with her parents Gail and Derek, has already endured more than 40 doses of gruelling chemotherapy, three weeks of radiotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and 29 blood transfusions at Aberdeen Royal Children’s Hospital.

Now she faces even more treatment – and one of the main side effects is the extreme pain.

But her proud mum Gail, 38, from Forres, Moray, said: “She has gone through it all with a big smile.

“I don’t know how she has done it. She’s a little warrior.

“She is always happy and chirpy. And of all she’s had done to her, the thing she hates most is getting a sticky plaster put on her toe for the monitor.

“It can sometimes take four or five nurses to hold her down and, the minute it is on, she pulls it off again.

“Not much bothers her. She puts up with it and never bats an eyelid.”

Eileidh has spent the last eight months fighting the disease with a cocktail of cancer drugs, as part of a clinical trial to save her life.

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SMILING: Eileidh is always happy

I don’t know how she has done it. She’s a little warrior

Gail, mum

Now the toddler faces six months of immunotherapy to keep the cancer, which has an 80 per cent chance of coming back, at bay.

Eileidh is one of 2,300 children in Europe to be selected to receive the treatment, which aims to train the body to attack cancer like a cold if it returns. But, with no guarantee of success, Gail wants to raise the £350,000 she’d need to take Eileidh to America if the cancer returned.

Mrs Paterson said: “There are three other clinical trials in Britain but they might not be suitable for her. “Hopefully, it won’t come back. and we won’t need it. “But making sure she survives is really the only thing that matters.”